Sunday, 25 February 2007

BAD BOY BUBBY

Bad Boy Bubby (1993) Dir. Rolf de HeerStarring Nicholas Hope

Guest review by Blair Stewart

"F-- You, God!" - -The Scientist to Bubby

This is a film that has a quality among cinema-lovers who have witnessed and discussed it similar to that of a shared devotion to a notorious underground comedian or a small pocket of the earth that few have knowledge of and less have trod upon. "Yes, yes, you watched 'Oldboy', that's all well and good, but tell me, have you seen 'Bad Boy Bubby?'.

Our hero Bubby is a 38 year old man-child who has never left his deathly grey apartment. He has no concept of the outside world except for his crazy Mother and a stray cat he befriends and inadvertently murders with Clingwrap. By the time you pick your jaw up from the floor after the opening scene Bubby's Pop will have arrived and the machinations of fate and nature will have thrust our bad Boy out into the big wide world.

A hardcore thrash-punk discussion of man's nature with a long streak of lewd Aussie humour, director Rolf de Heer has created a near indefinable work that is at times laugh-out loud funny, appallingly tasteless, disquieting, and in one glorious monologue/long-take, as challenging as anything the likes of Angelopoulos or Haneke have ever produced. Nicholas Hope in the lead role, (last seen in Scooby Doo and now living in exile in Norway, appropriately enough) is as brave and unique an actor in the world as one could wish while reacting off his environment with a demented cherubic intensity. Using such experimental techniques as binaural microphones sown into the actors’ hairpieces to immerse the audience inside the character's reality and employing over 32 cinematographers to form a unique perspective on individual scenes “Bad Boy Bubby” pushes the boundaries of how to approach the craft of filmmaking.

So, can you stomach full-frontal sexuality? Can you handle chalk-black gallows comedy that you'll be shamed if you giggle with? Can you accept the subversive thrill that runs underneath this film as civility and humanity and religion are tossed out the window? Can you brave a film that you will never, ever, ever, ever forget? Then let me whisper it to you quietly: “Bad Boy Bubby”. PS-Not a date movie.